27 July 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Yew Tree House is a residential care home for up to nine adults with complex needs including learning and physical disabilities and mental health needs. The service is provided in adapted building in a residential area in a small rural village. At the time of our inspection there were nine people living at the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were supported to live safely in their home within the community. People appeared to be relaxed and happy in their home environment and while interacting with staff.
We observed the lunchtime support at the service. The atmosphere was busy and friendly. During the morning people had been supported to access the community for activities and to attend appointments. People who remained at home were supported to engage in activities such as bingo and story reading. We met everyone living at the home, spoke with some people and observed the support offered by staff during lunch.
Staff understood people's needs and how to assist them to protect them from avoidable harm. Care plans and risk assessments were in place, which provided staff with guidance on how to meet people's needs and manage identified risks.
People were supported to receive their medicines safely and as prescribed.
The service had infection control processes and systems in place to reduce the risk of people contracting COVID-19. The home was clean and decorated in a homely style.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Based on our review of safe and well-led, this service was able to demonstrate how they were currently meeting the underpinning principles of ‘Right support, right care, right culture’.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
The provider had developed a model of care and an environment that maximised people's choice, control and independence. People's care was planned and delivered with their individualised needs in plans.
People were supported to access facilities in their local community such as carriage horse riding, trampolining and swinging.
The managers at the service and staff described their priority as delivering person centred care that met people's individual needs. Staff received autism and learning disabilities training.
We received very positive feedback from staff, relatives and professionals regarding the service and leadership in the home.
There was a robust quality assurance system in place to ensure people received the best possible service. The registered manager worked closely with the provider and partner agencies and services to promote best practice within the service and make a positive impact to people's lives.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update:
The last rating for this service was good (published 12 October 2017).
Why we inspected
We received concerns in relation to people’s safety and the management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
The overall rating for the service remains the same based on the findings of this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.